everything from economic policy to national defense and foreign policy was shaped. you have to be we were losing the cold war as of 1980. you know, europe, nato was falling apart. the soviets were in central america. southeast asia had fallen. really in the context of the cold war the soviets were winning and we were lotion. one of ronald reagan's great mission was the defeat of soviet communism. that was at the head of the checklist. you know, apartheid existed in south africa under the administrations of franklin roosevelt and harry truman and dwight eisenhower and lyndon johnson, every president going forward to ronald reagan. reagan was the first president to come up with a policy called constructive engagement which was to disengage from apartheid and move towards black majority rule without falling into the bloodbath that happened in rhodesia and cambodia. >> tom brokaw, just even constructive engagement which is choice of words by ronald reagan, complicated time. >> as i'm sure mr. shirley will agree, it was not a slam dunk for the administration. there was a